Dionysus

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Dionysus, in mythology, was the Greek god of fertility and vegetation. Although worshiped primarily as the god of wine, Dionysus, Dionysos, or Bacchus was more properly representative of many fluids in nature—the sap of the tree, the juice of the grape, and the blood of animals. Dionysus probably originated in Thraco-Phrygian legend. In Greek mythology he was the son of Zeus and Semele. His mother was consumed in the flames when Zeus appeared to her in all his Olympian radiance. Zeus saved the unborn Dionysus and sewed him up in his thigh until the time for his birth.

When he grew up, Dionysus wandered throughout the world teaching viticulture to humankind and spreading his worship, attended by a wine-frenzied troupe of nymphs and satyrs. Characteristic of the religion were orgiastic rites in which the votaries, chiefly women called maenads or bacchantes, roamed the mountains dressed in fawn skins, shrieking and brandishing torches. At the height of ecstasy they would seize wild animals, tearing them apart and devouring the flesh raw. Of the many cult legends telling of the god's irresistible invasion into Greece, the most famous concerned King Pentheus of Thebes, who intruded on a Dionysian orgy and was torn to pieces by his own mother. This story forms the subject of Euripides' Bacchae.

See also Bacchus.

Robert G. Russo
Queens College, City University of New York

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Russo, Robert G. "Dionysus." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2010.

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Russo, Robert G. "Dionysus." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online http://ea.grolier.com/article?id=0128160-00 (accessed October 13, 2010).

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Russo, R. G. (2010). Dionysus. Encyclopedia Americana. Retrieved October 13, 2010, from Grolier Online http://ea.grolier.com/article?id=0128160-00